Glenn Beck Considers Boycott Of Disney Over Charles Darwin Film

NEW YORK -- Glenn Beck, erstwhile mouthpiece for Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, this week suggested listeners of his radio show should consider boycotting Disney. The author and media personality, who masquerades a daily offering of religion and conspiracy theory as traditional conservatism, had previously stated his opposition to boycotts for reasons of free speech. However Beck appears to have performed a volte-face when it comes to the House of the Mouse.

“Creation,” a previous biopic about Darwin, starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, struggled to find a distributor in the US because, according to producer Jeremy Thomas, “There's still a great belief that He [God] made the world in six days."

Beck’s recent comments flowed from a discussion on boycotts and whether or not they work. “Boycotts work and we [social conservatives]... do nothing,” said the 51-year-old former alcoholic. He then added: “They’re doing a new movie, kind of an Indiana Jones swashbuckling spirit of a five-year voyage in 1831 on ship HMS Beagle to the coastline of South America to find and follow the man who made discoveries that made him one of the most influential figures in human history.”

Beck continued sarcastically: “Wow, this sounds like a swashbuckling thriller that we are going to have to take our families to see. Doesn’t it sound great? It’s Charles Darwin. It’s the story of Charles Darwin and so we’re going to find out how exactly he came up with the idea, made the discoveries that brought him to the theory of evolution. Thank you, Disney! That’s fantastic. That's wonderful.”